Friday, May 8, 2020

More Comments from Readers – Part X

Here are more comments that we have received from readers of
this website blog:Comment #1: “I read that “The legendary founding of Cusco by the first Inca, Manco
Capac, is placed about 1100 A.D. Manco Capac, according to legend, came up this
valley from the south; following instructions of the sun god he threw his
golden staff into the Cusco earth, and when the staff disappeared, suggesting
the land's fertility, he founded his city. It is generally agreed, and archaeologically
confirmed, that Inca history actually begins about 1200 and continues through
13 ruling Incas, ending with the death of Atahualpa at the hands of the
Spaniards in 1533. In the 12th century, however, the Incas were only one of the
myriad tribes that occupied the Andes area.” Do you agree with this? I thought
you said the Inca did not begin until 1400” Carlyle S.

The Inca myth-legend of their founding of
coming from the south with a magic golden stick that told them where to settle

Response: It is
remarkable, that even 1000 years after the demise of the Nephites, legends
still persist that have some truth to them. Nephi came up into that valley from
the south. He had the liahona—“And I,
Nephi, had also brought the records which were engraven upon the plates of
brass; and also the ball, or compass,
which was prepared for my father by the hand of the Lord, according to that which is written” (2 Nephi 5:12, emphasis mine). Evidently, the
Liahona guided Nephi to this area and when he arrived in this Cuzco region, it
was written on the instrument that this was the place for him to settle. In
myth, a staff was thrown, but after 1000 years, the Lamanites would hardly have
understood the Liahona though their fathers had witnessed its properties as seemingly
magic to them in their memories. As for the dates
indicated, those were dates believed in the early days of Inca studies, since
the Inca themselves were big on making themselves a history to warrant their
rise to the supreme power of the Andes after defeating the Chanka—a nature that
led them to become just that, and in so doing, they had to create a history to
match their power and might. However, in more recent years, more responsible
archaeologists and anthropologists have come to realize that the Inca existed
just under 100 years when the Spanish arrived, giving them a beginning date of
1438 A.D., when
the Inca ruler Pachacuti and his
army set out from their base in Cuzco on a career of conquest that, during the
next 50 years, brought under their control the area of present-day Peru, Ecuador,
Bolivia, northern Argentina and Chile. Before
then, they were a small tribe, one of many, whose domain was limited to their
own village lands when they began their quest of conquest.

A typical Q'ero village around Cuzco,
showing some ancient rock walls and foundations. These people once lived in the
ayllus in the valley below

By
1532, when the Spanish arrived, their Empire was crumbling and several tribes
aligned themselves with the Spanish to help end Inca rule. However,
when they became “the Inca,” they gave their empire the name “Land of the Four
Quarters” (Tahuantinsuyu in Quechua),
which stretched some 2,500 miles along the high mountainous Andean range from
Colombia to Chile. Prior to the time they became “the Inca,” they did not have
an identity, somewhat like North American Indian tribes who often called
themselves, simply “The People,” but were known by other tribes who gave them a
name—the Inca earlier were known as the Ayar, and were a group of “ayllus,
which were clans of families who lived and worked together. At one point, a
man, who called himself “Sapa Inka,”
(The First or Only Inka), came to power over all the ayllus, and placed each of the allyus under the supervision of a “curaca” or chief. In
time, legends, myths, stories and lies evolved about the Inka’s background, a
pantheon of earlier Inkas was created, Sapa Inka eventually became known as The
Sapan Intiq Churin, or “The Only Son
of the Sun.” The
legend of “The Inka” was born, and this ubiquitous
integration encompassed the histories, myths and legends of each subject tribe;
stories being intentionally combined, adopted or obliterated, or just
accidentally confused. This practice was characteristic of the Incas quest for
organization and structure.

Inca Amautas

The Amautas, a special class of wise men who
perpetuated traditions of the people, history and legend, redefined myths where
and when necessary to establish miracles of faith or precedent or sanctions
They did this to build up the power and prestige of The Inka and the Inca
people, especially in the eyes of conquered tribes and potentially conquerable
tribes. Comment #2: “I think I recall that a few
times in the blog you indicate that the Lamanites never built much of anything.
Doesn't Alma 21: 2-4
indicate otherwise? Also, for they had built
synagogues after the order of the Nehors; for many of the Amalekites and the
Amulonites were after the order of the Nehors. Sounds like new construction” David K. Response: The key to this
activity is in the fact that the Amalekites and the people of Amulon built a
great city—these were Nephite defectors, with the drive and ability and
knowledge acquired in the Nephite nation. They built a city like cities they
had lived in before they defected. They caused the Lamanites, a lazy people,
but who could easily be led by Nephite defectors since throughout the
scriptural area it is these defectors that often stir up the Lamanites to war,
to labor on the construction of the city. It was a magnificent city which might
possibly be seen today in the ruins of Puma Punku around Lake Titicaca.

One of the walls at Sacsyhuaman showing early pr-Inca construction (large
stones) and Inca repairs (small stones)

The Inca simply lacked the
ability to build as the image above shows. Also, note that nowhere in scripture
is there mention of anything the Lamanites alone built, did or accomplished.
They seem to have had one flurry of achievement throughout all their history
and that was when they were taught the Nephite language, i.e., how to read and
write, and were involved in commerce (Mosiah 24:3-7) and then, of course, when
there were no more -its among them and the Lamanites and Nephites were one
people after the advent of the Savior in the Americas. Other than that, though, we have
Lamanites living off the Nephite labors, crops and livestock as much as
possible--in fact, willing to move out of their cities to allow Zeniff and the
Nephites form Zarahemla to move in, obviously, to later subject them to 1/2 of
all their production--cunning by nature, but preferring to live off the welfare
system.Comment
#3: “What exactly was the Treasury of
Laban? Was it a bank? Storehouse? Or what?” Dennis B.Response:
Good question. Rabbi Yosef in his website of the past answered such a question
by saying “Laban's "treasury" in First
Nephi made sense in the Hebrew and in ancient Israel.” According to the Book of
Mormon, the treasury was where Laban kept sacred records. Rabbi Yosef explained
that it makes excellent sense, being "exactly in keeping with the culture
and language." "Treasury" in Hebrew is
"genizah," a word also used
for a room in ancient synagogues where scrolls were stored. By way of support,
Rabbi Yosef explained: “The
early "Church Father" Epiphanius, in his Panarion, section 30,
relates the story of a Jew named Josephus (Yosef) who became a believer in
Messiah after reading Hebrew copies of Acts and John which he found in a
"genizah" (treasury) in Tiberias, Israel” (Epiphanius; Panarion 30:3,
6). You
may also have heard of an archaeological find known as the "Cairo
Genizah," in which such an ancient store room of scrolls was found in the
remains of an ancient synagogue.